Lesser Known Monsters

I was given an e-book copy to judge this for the Indie Ink Awards for Prettiest Book Interior. Because I was judging several in this category, I actually ordered a physical copy as well to best judge then equally. There's a beautiful/creepy picture right in the front of the book that's a full page of black ink, it's followed by a title page in black with trees, fog, and the moon. It's probably my favorite I judged for the category. 
This is an urban fantasy with LGBTQ representation done right. The characters are not there as objects, that's just who they are, and it read as very authentic to me. And while urban fantasy typically isn't my main go to, this was very enjoyable. It's almost like an adult/gay Trials of Apollo, as it features monsters in the natural world. Plus, due to the monster taxonomy features, it gave it a kind of mythology feel that I liked. There's some romance elements, but it doesn't go into smut, which I endlessly appreciated. 
Good vs evil here, as most stories are, but with love and loss, grief and guilt, friendship and hardship, all mixed in. I was pleasantly surprised by the light tone and voice in the writing. Personally a 4/5* for me. Would gladly continue on with more!

This took me about 30% of the book to actually get into and, reading the other reviews, I couldn't see what I was missing. I almost DNF'd it because it seemed really boring and I didn't care about Oscar and his woe-is-me attitude, but once he and his friends broke into Dmitri's house and we were shown some actual action, I was a little more invested, if only to see where it was going.The world Michaelson builds here does remind me a lot of Gaiman or Froud and has a distinct British feel to it. If you liked [b:Neverwhere 14497 Neverwhere (London Below, #1) Neil Gaiman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348747943l/14497.SX50.jpg 16534] but wish there was a little more ripping flesh, this should be in your wheelhouse.Besides its really slow start, I did have a few other issues with the plot. Oscar is a wishy-washy character but he becomes a little more endearing when we see more of him than just being mildly incompetent at his nursing job. I felt that Zara getting her vague powers was a little out of left field and, while I'm sure we'll learn more about it in future books, it should have been Oscar. If you wanted Zara to be more interesting than Oscar, write the book from her POV instead. It also didn't make sense that her whole family was aware of the supernatural world - even her cop cousin that dated Oscar - but she had no idea, and yet still seems to recover from that bombshell and is able to use her powers way too quickly. Marcus is pretty much a nothing character. Being black and trans doesn't a character make. He does help save Oscar in the end but otherwise doesn't need to be here. Dmitri is very much in the “gentle giant” trope in that he's this horrific supernatural assassin and yet, in human form, seems almost like a wet towel - all wet, sad eyes. The insta-attraction between him and Oscar is a little nonsensical, unless we find that Oscar has a little more to him than we saw in this book. Another reason him suddenly inheriting super powers would make more sense than a side-character. The (only) sex scene between Dmitri and Oscar happening while he knows his friends are being held captive in Dmitri's basement with some sandwiches and no bathroom is insane. It's also not shown - we go from some heavy petting and then to him waking up the next morning in a new chapter, and his friends are still in the spider-infested piss basement below and heard everything. It was just very strange.I mostly enjoyed this book because of the dark supernatural world these characters are in rather than any of them. There needs to be some growth or an important twist for Oscar to keep the story worth reading because, as of now, he's in Bella Swan territory.